I recall Sinator Vitter speaking on the floor of Senate about something being "ass-backwards." Well, perhaps the good Sinator oughta get his own logic right, as his belief that the American automaker is crumbling right now solely because of the "$75 an hour they pay their workers" is being tested by news that Toyota is closing their JAPANESE plants.
Toyota announced today that it will stop production at all TWELVE plants in Japan for ELEVEN days in February and March, in addition to a THREE day shutdown this month.
Could the troubles that the American automakers be facing due to the credit crunch and our crumbling economy in addition to the wasteful health care system we have WAY more than the salaries paid to their unionized workforce? Hmmm, you betcha, Sinator ;)!
Rolfe McCollister of the Business Report has a fundamental misunderstanding of the Auto Bailout that the Senate Republicans blocked the other day. Let's take a look at his inaccuracies:
No bailout for Big Three
It's a waste of time and money-and simply a Democratic "payback" to the auto unions. But what is President Bush's excuse? He's lost his mind-and the support of conservatives. The Detroit model is broken. The Big Three will just be back again for more, and eventually they will collapse.
In 2007, Toyota reportedly sold 9.366 million units worldwide. GM announced it sold 9.369 million vehicles around the world last year, making the Detroit company the world's best-selling automaker for the 77th consecutive year. So, why will GM go broke by the end of the month without a bailout, while Toyota is on sound financial ground? They are broken and built to fail-and will. [The Big Three remind me of another dinosaur, the public school system, also run-and ruined-by the unions. Notice something similar here? Focus on the customer and the outcomes ... and respond or else.]
Other automakers have changed and are doing just fine. Learn from their success, and save our taxpayer dollars. Enough with the bailouts!
Pray tell, how is the bailout a payback to the UAW, Mr. McCollister? The auto workers, sir, have taken pay cuts over the last two contracts, while the executives of these companies have not seen any cuts in anything at all. They are still getting their perks, like flying in corporate jets to Washington with their hands out, and excessive bonuses over the past 30 years for performance that was, well, not so good.
One of the reasons that the American manufacturing base is "broken and built to fail" has absolutely nothing to do with the unions. The unions made the American manufacturer what the envy of the world. It has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that their overseas competitors don't have the huge costs of pensions and health care to deal with, since those countries have taken on those costs and pay for them with higher individual tax rates.
Why is that Mr. McCollister? Is it because folks of your ilk have used class warfare for the past 30 years to ensure that their workers' wages didn't keep pace with inflation while going hat in hand to Washington and the Louisiana Legislature complaining that business was being hurt by "high taxes?"
By the way, wouldn't having universal health care solve one of the major problems facing the Big 3 right now? They would no longer be responsible for ensuring that their workers had health care, and could save the billions they already spend each year on health care benefits for their workers and push it into Research and Development, and, hopefully, into paying their workers, not their management, more.
Where do you stand on universal health care, Mr. McCollister? My guess, sir is that you would be opposed to universal health care simply because the unions support it! That's right, sir, you're so predictable ... if the unions are for it, you're against it.
UPDATE: TPM flagged this, as did Oyster and Atrios, but if you believe that Vitter's gonna comment on the fact that the Bush Administration is allowing the CEO's and top management to still receive their over the top bonuses, I've got some prime beachfront property in Leeville, LA I wanna sell ya.
Last week, our junior Senator, David Vitter, or as Danger Blond referred to him, clASS act, got up on the floor of the United States Senate, and called the plan for the auto bailout "ass-backwards."
While I find it disconcerting myself to have to bail out the management of the American car manufacturers, who have buried their head in the sand for the last 30 years (and taken home MILLIONS in compensation), I find it incredible that Senator Vitter is so blase about the fact that thousands of Americans will be out of work if we allow the auto companies to fail. And it's not just the workers for GM or Chrysler that will lose jobs, it's the sales people of the car dealers across the nation, the folks who take care of the lawns at those dealers, the auto parts industry, and on and on. It will cascade into another Great Depression.
Yet, Senator Vitter and his Republican allies in the Senate are adamant that before they bail out the auto industry that the UAW, the union that represents the auto workers, take pay cuts, cuts in benefits and cuts in pension benefits before they would agree to a bailout the auto companies. Need proof? Here ya go:
"This is the Democrats' first opportunity to pay off organized labor after the election," read an e-mail circulated Wednesday among Senate Republicans. "This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it."
These class-warfare lovin' Republican Senators frequently cite the fact that American automakers pay their workers the $75 an hour compared to the $40 an hour Honda and Toyota pay their workers in the "right to work" South. The $75 an hour is a flat-out lie. The UAW tells us, that after the wage and benefit concessions in the 2005 and 2007 contracts, their workers' pay ranges from $14 an hour for new hires to $33 an hour for the skilled labor.
One of the many reasons why the American auto companies are struggling is that people aren't buying their gas guzzlers anymore, but also because we have an antiquated health care and pension system that puts the onus on the employer to ensure that their workers have health care and a pension. That needs to change, and it is what the Republicans are gearing up to fight in the coming year.
Perhaps the UAW's Shreveport Local 2166 President Morgan Johnson is on to something with respect to Vitter:
"I don't know what Sen. Vitter has against GM or the United Auto Workers or the entire domestic auto industry; whatever it is, whatever he thinks we've done, it's time for him to forgive us, just like Sen. Vitter has asked the citizens of Louisiana to forgive him. Otherwise, it would appear, he'd rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers."
Is it a coincidence that I don't recall Senator Vitter asking the bankers to agree to pay cuts in return for the $700 billion bailout a couple of months ago?
